and he was nevertheless as closely bound to evil as ever, only the
nature and character of the bonds were different, and no longer the
same.

Besides that dryness of the heart which made him feel as soon as he
entered a church or knelt down in his room, that a cold grip froze his
prayers and chilled his soul, he detected the covert attacks, the mute
assaults of ridiculous pride.

In vain did he keep watch; he was constantly taken by surprise without
having time even to look round him.

It began under the most temperate guise, the most benign reflections.

Supposing, for instance, that he had done his neighbour a service at
some inconvenience to himself, or that he had refrained from retaliating
on anybody against whom he believed he had a grievance, or for whom he
had no liking, a certain self-satisfaction stole, sneaked into his mind,
a certain vain-glory, ending in the senseless conclusion that he was
superior to many another man; and then, on this feeling of petty vanity,
pride was engrafted--the pride of a virtue he had not even struggled to
acquire, the arrogance of chastity, so insidious that most of those who
indulge it do not even suspect themselves.

And he was never aware of the end of these assaults till too late, when
they had become definite, and he had forgotten himself and succumbed;
and he was in despair at finding that he constantly fell into the same
snare, telling himself that the little good he could do must be wiped
out of the balance of his life by the outrageous extravagance of this
vice.